You sweat on it, you carry it around, you place it on the floor—so how germy does your yoga mat get? And how often do you need to clean it? “There’s no perfect answer,” says Claudia Gunsch, Ph.D., professor and microbiome expert.
“I think about this very much the way we think about the bathroom shower or the kitchen sponge. Microbes need moisture and food to thrive and those conditions exist in your shower, your sponge and also your yoga mat,” says Gunsch, who studies the curation of healthy microbiomes (a balance of good and bad bacteria) within the spaces where we live. “But the question of how often and what you clean with is very individual.”
So, yes, you do need to clean your yoga mat, but you don’t need to scrub it between every downward dog. To help you decide the right cleaning schedule, consider these factors.
Claudia Gunsch, Ph.D., is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Duke University. She’s the Director for PreMiEr, the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Precision Microbiome Engineering. She also serves as an Associate Director for the Duke Microbiome Center.
1. How Thick Is Your Mat, a What Is It Made Of?
After using your yoga mat, be sure it dries out before rolling it back up and storing it in the closet. (Always let the mat dry completely after cleaning it, too.) Germs thrive in moisture, so allowing your mat to totally dry between uses helps lower the risk of anything developing. If your mat is made from a thick, spongey material, you may need to air it out longer and clean it more often.
“Think about your yoga mat like socks,” Gunsch says. “You wash your socks to remove germs, but also because you don’t want them to be smelly. A thicker mat may need to be wiped down more often and left out to dry longer to prevent the build up of odor-causing bacteria.”
2. How Often Do You Use It?
Take the sock comparison—if you use the mat every day, you probably want to clean it more often. If you’re only practicing yoga once a week you can consider just cleaning the mat after you use it. But make sure it’s dry between uses.
3. Where Are You Using It?
If you’re practicing yoga at home, you’re mostly only exposed to your own microbes and germs. But if you’re taking your mat to the gym, you may want to clean the mat more often, as it’s exposed to whatever microbes are on the gym floor. Also consider the overall environment of the gym or yoga studio: Was it hot and crowded? Was someone near you coughing, sneezing or sweating a lot? These factors may prompt you to clean your mat more often.
Helen Norman
4. What’s the Season?
More cold, flu and other viruses that spread through the air are usually circulating October through February. Come spring, it’s allergy season—so you may be cleaning for allergens in addition to microbes. And if you’re using your mat outdoors, your mat may be exposed to more allergens.
5. How Much Do You Sweat?
Moisture creates the environment for the microbes to multiply and thrive. So if you sweat a lot, you probably want to clean or wipe the mat down more often and leave it out to dry for longer.
6. What Should You Use To Clean?
For Gunsch, there’s no perfect answer to this question, either. “What does clean mean? You don’t want to over-clean; there are good microbes, too,” she says. “I’m always cautious with the disinfectants; my concern if you clean too often with a too-strong cleaner the microbes could become resistant to that cleaner.”
It’s all about maintaining a balance between the ‘bad’ microbes and the good ones that aren’t causing problems. Also, if you use a very harsh cleaner, the material of the yoga mat could break down. A main goal is make sure the yoga mat dries out completely after you use it and after you clean it.
